By Anne Cohen March 20, 2013

A man jailed for 21 years for the murder of a prominent Satmar rabbi might not actually be guilty, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

David Ranta, sentenced to 37.5 years in a maximum-security prison in May 1991 for the violent murder of Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger, may be released as early as Thursday, the report added.

Werzberger, an Auschwitz survivor, was shot in the head on February 8, 1990, as an innocent bystander to an ongoing robbery. Faced with the outrage of the Satmar community in Williamsburg, authorities felt extra pressure to find the killer, the Times reported.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

But in the decades since Ranta?s conviction, The New York Times wrote, ?nearly every piece of evidence in this case has fallen away.? A number of witnesses disclosed that they had lied on instructions from detectives, or to protect their own interests.

Detective Louis Scarcella and his partner, Stephen Chmil, the Times added, ?broke rule after rule? according to legal documents and reports from the trial.

According to one investigator, the detectives allowed two dangerous criminals to ?leave jail, smoke crack cocaine and visit with prostitutes in exchange for incriminating Mr. Ranta,? the report stated.

One key witness in the case said that one detective had told him who to identify in a lineup. Another crucial to the case ? a convicted rapist ? revealed that he had named Ranta in order to cut a deal.

Ranta, now 58, release may come about, in large part thanks to an investigation conducted by his lawyer, Pierre Sussman. Asked by The New York Times how he survived in prison, he answered he wasn?t sure he really had.

?I?d lie there in the cell at night and I think: I?m the only one in the world who knows I?m innocent,? he said. ?I came in here as a 30-something with kids, a mother who was alive. This case killed my whole life.?

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount